2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Washington Post: Bernie Sanders is hijacking the Democratic Party to be elected as an independent [View all]Jarqui
(10,123 posts)I'm sure someone has already explained why Sanders decided to run as a Democrat - to not hand the White House to the GOP by splitting the Democratic vote.
Where "hostile takeover" doesn't entirely work is the Democratic party could have declined. They did not decline. They declined assuming Bernie couldn't compete against Hillary.
I don't think you'd have to twist the Sanders campaign's arm to get Bernie to withdraw now as long as he can run in the general as an independent (haven't checked dates or sore loser laws). Because if Clinton & Trump are the two other candidates, I think Bernie would be the next President of the United States. Trump can't beat him head to head and Clinton can't beat him outside of the party.
Sanders would keep what he's got of the Democratic party, do the best of the three handily with the independents (the biggest constituency) and do well attracting GOPers who cannot stand Trump or Clinton (a lot of them hate both).
Be careful what you ask for. If Bernie hadn't made the promise he did, I would have been all over him to run as an independent.
Of course, if the other shoe drops on the emails or Clinton Foundation returning an indictment, the Democratic Party might be real glad to have a candidate like Bernie.